102. Digital Writing & Digital Divides in the US: Electronic Literature & Privilege (47:27)

Date:
2022-04-06
Summary:
Invited speaker Leonardo Flores examines the impact of digital divides in the United States on the emergence of electronic literature as a practice and field, ending with a call for a more expansive term such as "digital writing" to help diversify the field. Professor Flores' talk was part of the Scholars' Lab speaker series at the University of Virginia, April 6, 2022; recorded via Zoom in the presence of a live audience.

103. Digitalis (2:01:18)

Date:
2019-04-29
Main contributors:
McIntire Department of Music
Summary:
AUTODIVA’S ROOM - Susan Grochmal Vestigial Wings - Eli Stine The Gate is Open - Aiman Khan Integration - Daniel Arvelo-Perez Rain Shadow No. 2 - Ben Luca Robertson Quotation d0419: “Franco, Christian. “Victor Huerta”, Mexico 2009” - Omar Fraire Complicated - Kaiming Cheng Icarus - Ryan Kann godtrash - Becky Brown Squash - 3 LB Program Notes AUTODIVA’S ROOM Hey what’s up welcome to my room have a good time —Susan Grochmal AUTODIVA is currently working on her second album, DIVA PARTY, scheduled for release this summer, a followup to her first album DUAL- ITY. She explores important topics such as the Internet and Computers and are we Real. Vestigial Wings “At the boundary of the desert Beneath the telescopic sky I stopped to take the world in As it went on rushing by I thought ten hundred futures Of what could and would become As the dark of night got closer Slipping disk of orange sun I thought of all I’d loved and lost: Of dropped, forgotten things Of books with unread pages Broken roots, vestigial wings I thought of names gone unremembered, And of places never seen, Of the last of every species, Silent forests, noiseless seas And as dusk made way to nightfall Black sky pricked with yellow light I had not moved a single muscle And so doing lost my life Because in thinking and not doing All I did was just compare What could and would become of Rather than what was really there” —Eli Stine Eli Stine is a composer, programmer, and educator. Stine is currently finishing a Ph.D. in Composition and Computer Technologies as a Jefferson Fellow at the University of Virginia, and is a graduate of Oberlin College and Conservatory with degrees in Technology In Music And Related Arts and Computer Science. Stine’s work explores electroacoustic sound, multimedia technologies (often custom-built software, video projection, and multi-channel speaker systems), and collaboration between disciplines (artistic and otherwise). Festivals and conferences that have programmed Stine’s work include ICMC, SEAMUS, NIME, CMMR, NYCEMF, the Third Practice Festival, CubeFest, the Muestra Internacional de Música Electroacústica, the International Sound Art Festival Berlin, the Workshop on Intelligent Music Interfaces for Listening and Creation, and the International Conference on Computational Intelligence in Music, Sound, Art and De- sign. Currently, his sound design for the virtual reality installation MetamorphosisVR, a virtual reality adaptation of Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis, is touring around the world, with installation locations including Prague, Berlin, Madrid, Cairo, Oslo, Seoul, Tokyo, and Hong Kong. The Gate Is Open With the guidance of Professor Leah Reid, I wrote this piece this semester. It reflects my recent experience of finding unprecedented happiness and depth in my life and learning to become familiar with joy without worrying about the future. I hadn’t previously composed music with a specific personal event or feeling in mind, so this has been a fun change. The piece begins with just horn alone, and several layers of sound periodically enter and leave throughout, interacting both with each other and with the solo horn. —Aiman Khan Aiman Khan is in her fourth year at the University of Virginia, studying Music and Economics. She is in the Performance Concentration within the Music Department, and she is a member of the horn section of the Charlottesville Symphony. In the summer of 2018, she spent five weeks in Greensboro, NC at the Eastern Music Festival, and this coming sum- mer she will participate the in National Music Festival in Maryland. Aiman is also a composer, primarily of electro-acoustic music. In November 2018, her piece Fluid Awareness was performed at the UVA Fall Dance Concert, and she performed her piece Ragged Call at the 2019 National Student Electronic Music Event (NSEME) in February. Integration Integration is a piece that brings together and takes apart harmony, form, and texture of acoustic and electronic sound. Its inspiration has come from UVA faculty guidance and “integration” of self-inspired ideas and synthesis. Rojo also wants to thank Kevin Davis, Heather Mease, Akin Odeleye, Robert Kaufman, Karidan Mavericks, and Leah Reid for their time and patience in the completion of Integration. —Daniel Arvelo-Perez Daniel “Rojo” Arvelo-Perez is a non-traditional 2nd year who was accepted into the music department last semester. He has been working with DAWS for over the past ten years and has a deep appreciation for the opportunities UVA has brought to him this current semester. His hobbies outside the music department include juggling, martial arts, and blacksmithing. Rain Shadow No. 2 Rain Shadow No. 2 is part of a continued exploration of textural and spectral topologies. This iteration focuses on tonal flux as a property of intersecting overtone (“Otonal”) and undertone (“Utonal”) structures afforded by 7-limit just intonation. Using a pair of hand-held transduc- ers and amplified strings, the performer probes different surfaces to capture minute impulse signals. These impulses are transformed using a variation of Karplus-Strong synthesis, with all synthesis parameters controlled via a secondary tactile interface. The resultant sonorities retain the textural quality of each surface encountered, while imbuing a microtonal ‘haze’ across the spectrum. -Ben Luca Robertson Ben Luca Robertson is a composer, experimental luthier, and co-found- er of Aphonia Recordings. His work addresses an interest in autonomous processes, landscape, and biological systems—often supplant- ing narrative structure with an emphasis on the physicality of sound, spectral tuning systems, and microtonality. Growing up in the inland Pacific Northwest, impressions of Ponderosa pine trees, channel scab- lands, basalt outcroppings, and relics of boomtown decay haunt his work. Ben holds an M.A. in Music Composition from Eastern Washington University, a B.A. from the Evergreen State College, and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Composition and Computer Technologies at the University of Virginia. In the Summer of 2015, he was appointed to a guest research position at the Tampere Unit for Computer-Human Interactions (TAUCHI) in Finland and recently collaborated with biologists from the University of Idaho to sonify migratory patterns of Chinook Salmon in the Snake River watershed. Quotation d0419: “Franco, Christian. “Víctor Huerta”, México 2009” -No, we are against any kind of pedagogic device, we have no message to convey, we are artist, we make artwork, not propaganda. On our use of quotes we expect to be close what _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ wrote: “A quote must be like a bandit who assaults passersby.” —FdC Omar Fraire Human as an artist, inventor, magician, curator, teacher - Fraire’s work is inserted into reality by transducing it, and functions as an act of resistance. Fraire enjoys collaborative work, and his energies oscillate across disciplines. After having deserted from two universities in México, Fraire has gone on to specialize in Sonology (Koninklijk Conservatorium - Holland) and holds a Master’s degree in Contemporary Art as auditor (Aguascalientes). He is the creator of Punto Ciego Festival, and artist of the Guggenheim Aguascalientes. Fraire is mostly self-taught, though he holds an M.A. from Wesleyan, having studied under R. Kuivila, and is currently a Ph.D. candidate at UVA. Complicated Complicated is a future bass electronic music piece written for MelodyPainter, a virtual reality-based composition software that transforms the user’s motion into corresponded MIDI notes. Future Bass is a genre that heavily applies modulated synthesized sounds in its composition. With MelodyPainter, one can fully utilize the capacity of different synthesizers. Complicated has a strong rhymic feeling accompanied by beautiful vo- cal lines. In this piece, I hope to explore the potential of blending MelodyPainter into somewhat mainstream music and see how it goes. -Kaiming Cheng Kaiming Cheng is a musician, programmer, and instrument designer. Cheng is currently a fourth year student pursuing a B.A. in Music and Computer Science as a J.Sanford Miller Arts Scholar at the University of Virginia. At a very young age, Cheng began to play drum and was actively involved in different music groups and bands in both China and America. After also developing a keen interest in technology, he tried to combine his two best interests - music and computer science together. Icarus “This is my final project for MUSI 4547 - Composing with Electronics. The goal was to make something Lofi-inspired. Although that’s how it started, it branched off into something much more dynamic.” -Ryan Kann Ryan Kann “I have been composing primarily orchestral and piano music as a hob- by for a few years; however, MUSI 4547 was my first formal composition course. I am really excited to show off everything that I’ve learned, and I feel I have expanded a lot as a musician over the course of this past semester.” godtrash You really screwed up this time, huh? Becky Brown is a composer, harpist, artist, and web designer, interested in producing intensely personal works. She focuses on narrative, emotional exposure, and catharsis, with a vested interest in using technology and the voice to deeply connect with an audience, wherever they are. Depending on who you talk to, her music is “honest, direct and communicative,” “personal and raw,” or “took me to a place I didn’t want to go.” She is a 2nd year graduate student in composition at UVA. Squash Squash is an exercise in exercising (exorcising?) for the sake of body, mind, spirit, and art. Object impact reveals the (un)evenness of space as compositional process questions our (im)perception of time. -3LB 3LB was formed in Charlottesville, VA on April 1st, 2019 at 2:11 PM.

104. Digitalis 2018 (1:07:10)

Date:
2018-05-15
Main contributors:
McIntire Department of Music
Summary:
Program Notes (Ritual music), for viola, oboe, and percussion - David Joo This piece experiments with the trio’s ability to imitate the sounds of Korean folk music, in particular the incidental timbres from the improvisatory music of shaman rituals. The pitch content is derived from a spectral analysis of the large gong, while the rhythms are loosely based on traditional long-short motifs. David Joo is a 4th year arts & science student studying chemistry and music with a fascination for paper science and experimental music. Improvisations on a Painting by Jules Olitski (2018) - Luc Cianfarani Improvisations on a Painting by Jules Olitski (2018) is a work for piano and live electronics based off of studies in color perception. Each section is based on a color from the painting “Untitled” by Jules Olitski. Much of the work is improvised, and at times the pianist must improvise against an interactive audio-visual screen which changes colors based off of the sounds the piano makes. Luc Cianfarani is a composer and pianist from Saratoga Springs, NY. His work is informed by a wide-variety of sources including jazz, spectralism, postmodernism and visual art. He will continue his compositional studies next years while pursuing a master’s degree at Boston University. SALTSCRUB - Heather Mease tall and tan and tall and lovely the girl from Ipanema goes walking and while she’s walking she stops and passes, says “ah” hm ‘lil corncob’ mease is a composer, multimedia artist, schemer, community arts organizer, and aggressive consumer of internet media. mease has a Bachelor’s of Music from Temple University and currently studies Composition and Computer Technologies at the University of Virginia and manages operations at the Bridge Progressive Arts Initiative in Charlottesville. Zebra Crossings - Aaqil Abdullah A spectralist piece that explores the landscape of percussion. This piece utilizes many types of instruments in conjunction with electronics to help fill the atmosphere. Let the sound of this crossing envelop you, as it comes to a climax. Aaqil Abdullah has been composing since he was 16 years old starting off with chiptune music for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Since then he has moved into many different styles of music for many different instruments, such as saxophone quartets, choral arrangements, and even self-producing popular music. After UVA he plans to keep on composing and doing music theory at every opportunity, and hopes to compose new atmospheres for video game soundtracks. Deep in the Heart of Virginia - Peter Pairo The construction of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, fracked-gas pipeline, has recently started in Virginia going through over 300 miles of people’s property, national parks, & waterways! It also happens to pass through Buckingham, the geographical center [heart] of Virginia putting thousands of Virginians in danger. This piece aims to utilize electronic music, acoustic instruments, and various forms of visual aid to better depict this imminent environmental catastrophe. This Piece is composed of two main movements each intentionally different. The piece tells the story of the James River, one of the major waterways on the path of the pipeline. The first movement gives more emphasis on the initial peaceful state of James as the sound of clean water starts dripping from a bag into a glass. The ambience of synthesized sound, guiro, and marimba along with soft oboe emphasize are used to depict the sound of nature. Without rest, the second movement starts with the sound of slowly dripping dark colored water [visual pollution]. In the meantime, oboe and viola gradually increase tension by a long crescendo to depict the struggle and the discruption caused by construction. At the end, slapstick [trees falling] breaks this pattern followed by pizzicato in viola and grace notes in oboe leaving the sound of water to solely resonate in the space. Variance - Connor Watkinson In this piece I am exploring the relationship between digital music and nature, combining elements of both live instrumental recordings, immitation, and foley with unique textures meant to represent each space. The three soundscapes being explored here are a spring field, a snow- bound cabin, and a thunderstorm by the sea. Connor Watkinson is a graduating 4th year Music and Cognitive Science double major. EXTENSION OF MYSELF - Susan Grochmal submit too the chaos Susan Grochmal is an undergrad at UVA studying poetry. She explores a personal/human relationship to technology through sound and direct interaction. In addition to building physical entities, she is also a video artist and musician. She plans to release her upcoming album, DUALITY, this spring, under her latest project, AUTODIVA. Rosebud--Excerpt #1 - Ben Robertson This piece & the creation of the instrument itself, originate in a desire to develop a re-embodied mode of synthesis in which the composer/ performer physically engages with sound spectra. To this end, ‘Rosebud’ utilizes electro-magnetic actuators to bring six, metal strings into varying states of sympathetic resonance. This resonance is as much a property of the vibrating string, as it is a product of the software which drives the system. Here sound is not a facsimile of its source. Instead the materials are allowed to speak, translating an imagined world though the artifacts of a very real, physical object. Ben Luca Robertson is a composer, experimental luthier, and co-founder of the independent record label, Aphonia Recordings. His work addresses an interest in autonomous processes and biological systems—often by supplanting narrative structure with an emphasis on the physicality of sound, spectral tuning systems, and microtonality. Illustrating the complex interactions and materials of our surroundings is an essential component of Ben’s work and his compositions often reflect themes associated with his upbringing in the Inland Pacific Northwest. As such, recent projects have included collaboration with the University of Idaho Water Resources Department to sonify the migratory patterns of Chinook Salmon. Another important component of this practice includes the construction of new instruments that utilize re-purposed objects, electro-magnetism, and sympathetic resonance as a means for actualizing the complex tuning systems he envisions for his pieces. Ben holds a B.A. from the Evergreen State College and a M.A. in Music Composition from Eastern Washington University. His work has been featured throughout the region and abroad, including performances at the Sound and Music Computing Conference in Ireland and a guest research appointment with the Tampere Unit for Computer-Human Interaction in Finland. Painting Music in Virtual Reality - Kaimeng Chang What if you can play any instrument just by waving around? Will the virtual surrounding inspire artists’ innovation? In this piece, Kaiming is going to explore the infinite possibility of virtual reality and its application in music. He will perform an ambient electronic music while totally immersed in a virtual outer space. Kaiming Cheng is a musician, programmer, and instrument designer. Cheng is currently a third-year student pursuing B.A. in Music and Computer Science as a J.Sanford Miller Arts Scholar at the University of Virginia. At a very young age, Cheng began to play drum and was actively involved in different music groups and bands in both China and America. After also developing a keen interest in technology, he tried to combine his two best interests - music and computer science together. No Where - Eli Stine This work explores the idea of non place, of a designed electroacoustic environment that is inexpressible, undefined, that ultimately has no sense of where. To accomplish this task both a multitude of ambience tropes (for example, filmic tropes of what archetypal spaces (restaurants, carnivals, offices) sound like) and impossible deformations of recorded and virtual spaces (pushing the ceiling beneath the floor, for example) are juxtaposed and interposed to dis- and un-place the listener. Eli Stine is a composer, programmer, and media designer. Stine is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Composition and Computer Technologies as a Jefferson Fellow at the University of Virginia. Stine is a graduate of Oberlin College and Conservatory with degrees in Technology In Music And Related Arts and Computer Science. Stine’s work ranges from acoustic to electronic composition, and frequently incorporates multimedia technologies and collaboration, seeking to explore the intersections between performed and computer-generated art. Festivals and conferences that have programmed Stine’s work include the International Computer Music Conference, Society for Electroacoustic Music in the United States conferences, International Symposium on Computer Music Multidisciplinary Research, Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression, New York City Electroacoustic Music, Third Practice, Studio 300, and Threshold festivals, the Muestra Internacional de Música Electroacústica, the Spatial Music Workshop, and the International Sound Art Festival Berlin. Most recently Stine created sound design for a VR adaptation of Kafka’s Metamorphosis that is touring the world. More information and work may be found at www. elistine.com. The Horizon, Mine - Rebecca Brown Program notes: Twenty seconds is two minutes is four hours is five days is three weeks. There is some new-old thing I’ve never seen before around every bend, over every hill, along every forest. I never know where I’m going, just that I’m going, just that I’m not where I was anymore or ever again. Performer: Becky Brown, found objects (or percussion, depends on what makes more sense) Becky Brown is a composer, harpist, artist, and web designer, interested in producing intensely personal works across the multimedia spectrum. Currently, she is pursuing a doctorate in composition at the University of Virginia, studying with Dr. Matthew Burtner. She is the Technical Director of the Electroacoustic Barn Dance, and recently worked as a Music Technology Specialist at the University of Richmond. Her music has been performed at SEAMUS, SCI National/Regional, Third Practice New Music Festival, Ball State New Music Festival, and in Beijing, China. Hold Still, her work for live art and electronics, was released on the SEAMUS label in 2017. Previously, she studied electroacoustic composition with Dr. Mark Snyder, and harp performance with Dr. Grace Bauson. Suburban Summers - Caroline Kinsella Growing up, summer in suburbia always left a certain taste in my mouth. It was, and still is, mostly undefinable: somewhere in between exigent and sublime. This composition aims to evoke these feelings—the slow, dreamy heat and inconsistent passage of time—how the weeks blend together and all too soon it’s as if you were living in a memory the whole time. To build this atmosphere, I collaged sounds I associate with warm weather at home—cars rolling by, birds chirping in the yard, the neighbor’s lawnmower starting up—with raw moments of my own summer journals. This soundscape attempts capture the very surreal and nostalgic feelings I have long associated with summers spent in suburbia. Caroline Kinsella is a multimedia artist with a penchant for dreamy soundscapes and collage-based artwork. Her all-around artistic influences include Petra Collins, Richard Siken, Sofia Coppola, Ta-Ku, and In Love With a Ghost. With Bells On - Alex Christie These are things that bubble to the surface during long periods of sleep deprivation. Alex Christie makes acoustic music, electronic music, and intermedia art in many forms. His work has been called “vibrant,” “interesting, I guess,” and responsible for “ruin[ing] my day.” He has collaborated with artists in a variety of fields and is particularly interested in the ways in which acoustic and electronic sound worlds intersect. Performer Bios I-Jen Fang, percussion Described as an “intrepid percussionist” by Fanfare Magazine, I-Jen Fang has a career as a solo performer, chamber musician, orchestral player, and teacher. She joined the faculty of the McIntire Department of Music at the University of Virginia in 2005 and as the Principal Timpanist and Percus- sionist of the Charlottesville Symphony. She received her B.F.A. from Carnegie Mellon University, M.M. from Northwestern University and Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of North Texas. I-Jen has performed or recorded with artists such as Keiko Abe, William Cahn, Christopher Deane, Mark Ford, Mike Mainieri, Ed Smith, Michael Spiro, Nanik Wenton, Nyoman Wenton, Attacca Percussion Group, EcoSono Ensemble, and Da Capo Chamber Players. She has performed as marim- ba soloist in Taiwan, U.S., Austria, France, Hungary, Romania, and South Africa. She has also appeared as a featured performer at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention, PAS Day of Percussion, Staunton Music Festival, and Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival. I-Jen Fang is an Innovative Percussion Artist. Kelly Peral, oboe Kelly Peterson Peral is University of Virginia’s Lecturer in Oboe and Principal Oboe with the Charlottesville Symphony at the University of Virginia. Her current performance work also includes engagements with the Roanoke Symphony, Williamsburg Symphony, Richmond Symphony, and Virginia Symphony in Norfolk. Interested in supporting new music projects, Ms. Peral has worked with American Composers Orchestra, NYC Opera’s VOX Festival, Philadelphia’s Network for New Music, and Miami’s Subtropics Festival. Peral has served on the faculties of the Cleveland Music School Settle- ment, Miami’s New World School of the Arts and Florida International University as well as The Juilliard School Pre-College Division. She is a graduate of The Juilliard School (MM), Cleveland Institute of Music (BM), and Interlochen Arts Academy (HSD). Her major teachers include Elaine Douvas, John Mack, Daniel Stolper, and David Goza. Ayn Balija, viola Violist Ayn Balija leads a musically rich life performing and teach- ing throughout the country. She joined the faculty of the University of Virginia in 2007 and serves as the principal violist of the Charlottesville Symphony at the University of Virginia and is the violist of the Rivanna String Quartet. Ms. Balija performs and teaches around the country including the Richmond Symphony, Tennessee Governors School for the Arts, Yachats Summer Music Festival, North Carolina Chamber Music Festival, Charlottesville Opera, West Virginia University, and the Uni- versity of Tennessee Knoxville. She performs and commissions a wide variety of music including new works from Libby Larsen, Kenji Bunch, Jorge Variejo, Matthew Burtner, and Judith Shatin. She holds degrees from Oberlin Conservatory of Music, The Cleveland Institute of Mu- sic and James Madison University. She has studied with Peter Slowik, James Dunham, Jeffrey Irvine, Karen Tuttle, Victoria Chiang, and Amadi Azikiwe. Her principal mentors have been Peter Slowik, Jeffrey Irvine, and Karen Tuttle.

106. Dissecting Gray's Anatomy (the book) (1:00:03)

Date:
2014-01-29
Main contributors:
University of Virginia. School of Medicine
Summary:
In 1858, young English surgeons Henry Gray and Henry VanDyke Carter published an illustrated anatomy textbook for medical students. Gray's Anatomy has never since been out of print, but little was known about its author and illustrator until acclaimed science writer Bill Hayes—inspired by a photograph of Henry Gray—pieced together their story in The Anatomist. This Medical Center Hour explores the medical, historical, and artistic significance of Gray's Anatomy and also Hayes's unforgettable year alongside medical students in the anatomy lab. Co-presented with the History of the Health Sciences Lecture Series, Historical Collections, Claude Moore Health Sciences Library

107. Dissecting with a paintbrush: demonstrating not so "gross" anatomy (58:50)

Date:
2015-10-14
Main contributors:
University of Virginia. School of Medicine
Summary:
Danny Quirk is a young artist specializing in photorealistic watercolors, painting what the camera cannot capture. Much of his work illustrates the intricacies of human anatomy. On canvas, he paints figures in classic poses (sometimes á la Renaissance anatomist Andreas Vesalius) in striking chiaroscuro lighting. But, more dramatically, he also paints on living subjects, representing on the body's surface the anatomical structures that lie beneath. In this Medical Center Hour, Danny Quirk talks about "dissecting" with a paintbrush—and while he's talking, he'll complete an anatomical drawing on a student volunteer. Co-presented with the History of the Health Sciences Lecture Series

108. Diversity for diversity's sake? Or, the answer to implicit bias? (1:00:01)

Date:
2018-02-07
Main contributors:
University of Virginia. School of Medicine
Summary:
In recent years in the US, increasing workforce diversity has become a priority in health care and other industries. Many companies, including Fortune 500s, now recognize that having a diverse workforce improves both business and the bottom line—indeed, diversity is key to organizational excellence. In this Medical Center Hour, a panel of physicians explores whether UVA Health System's growing diversity can add value in a very different way: can our organization's greater diversity be a lever to mitigate bias in these increasingly fraught times? A John F. Anderson Memorial Lecture

109. Doctors as makers (1:04:11)

Date:
2017-02-01
Main contributors:
University of Virginia. School of Medicine
Summary:
Understanding and responding to patients' complex health needs and challenges requires physicians--and all healthcare providers--to think creatively. Knowledge and information are not enough. We must prepare future physicians to think differently and to be mindful of how they think. But future physicians must also possess the skills of a creative artist, because, for many doctors on the clinical frontlines, medicine is a science-using creative art. In this Medical Center Hour, emergency medicine physician, medical educator, and fiction writer Jay Baruch argues that necessary transformations in medicine and medical education will demand new interdisciplinary skills and methods--and essential contributions from artists, writers, designers, and humanities scholars. The Moore Lecture of the School of Medicine